The Agrarian
Foundation |
 |
The Agrarian
Foundation |
|
Click on any of the following book titles to order from Amazon.com. Click the 'back' button on your browser to return to this site. Add as many books as you like, and then proceed to the Amazon.com checkout to complete your purchase.
Essays:
A Continuous Harmony : Essays Cultural and Agricultural
The Agricultural Crisis : A Crisis of Culture: Proceedings Number 33
Another Turn of the Crank : Essays
Gift of Good Land : Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural
Harlan
Hubbard : Life and Work
An insightful biography of a man Barry obviously had good reason to admire and respect.
Harlan Hubbard, in a somewhat Thoreau-like zeal to 'Live Intentionally' in a world
increasingly impersonal and industrial, built and created for himself and his wife a rich
and beautiful life of amazing simplicity.
Home Economics : Fourteen Essays
Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community : Eight Essays
The Unsettling of America : Culture & Agriculture
What Are People For? - Audio Cassette
Short Stories and Novels:
A
Place on Earth
Wendell Berry’s 2nd and longest novel of the Port William community and membership.
Set in 1945 Patriarch Matt Feltner receives word that his only son Virgil is missing in
action in the war overseas. Berry brilliantly sketches the characters and history of the
Place, as the whole town deals, all in their own way, with the anguish and pressures of
World War two. Filled with touching letters from Burley Coulter to his nephew Nathan
Coulter also at war, Berry lightens the book with several hilarious stories. As usual,
these are all flawed and imperfect people with a redeeming humanity who love one another.
A
World Lost
Set in the late 1930s Uncle Andrew, Andy Catlett's name sake and Weller's lovable but
womanizing brother is shot. Andy is forced out of his romantic childhood. Pondering back
years later upon all the events and its effect on his family, Andy learns much about long
term consequences of irresponsible living.
Fidelity
: Five Stories
My personal and still favorite 'introduction' to Berry's writing and the Port William
membership. Very well written, insightful and tender essays. I've read the beautiful
story, 'A Jonquil for Mary Penn' to my children and several friends just to introduce them
to Berry and get them started. Most always works!
How
Ptolemy Proudfoot Lost A Bet
Hilarious stories of early Port William. Burley's a boy in the late teens and Tol and Miss
Minnie live a slow-paced life full of great stories. These I've read aloud to my children
-- some of them several times. My son loved these too.
The
Memory of Old Jack
Wendell Berry's 3rd novel. Beautifully and tenderly written story about a strong vigorous
farmer (Old Jack Beecham), who as an old man in 1952 in his late eighties or early
nineties, remembers his full and somewhat tragic life. Humor, pointed and detailed pointed
rememberings of friends, dead and living, wife, and the Port William 'Membership'. The
last chapter is most touching. Jack's friends talk about him as they work in the cold
curing the tobacco together, months after he has passed on, and Berry masterfully connects
the passing of old Jack -- with the passing of an era in both farming and community life
in our land.
Nathan
Coulter
Berry's first novel set in mid-to-late 1920s about two brothers coming of age in Port
Williams' Membership. Nathan is 13-15 and brother Tom is 16-18 as they work for their
stern, withdrawn and severe father Jarret, and his loveable brother, uncle Burly Coulter.
My 14 year old boy’s favorite book -- though he surely didn't 'get it' all.
Remembering
Possibly Wendell Berry's most brilliant novel. Used by Prof. James Everett Kibler in some
of his Senior English major classes at the University of Georgia. Andy Catlett (perhaps
Mr. Berry's alter ego), spends a long day in San Francisco in 1976. 'remembering' his life
and experiences in the Port William community. Andy, is distraught and borders depression
at the state of farming and the plight of local agrarian communities before the juggernaut
of industrial agribusiness. This all is exacerbated by his own perceived loss of Place and
identity due to the loss of his right hand to a corn picker eight months earlier.
Brilliantly written, this book is worth reading carefully and with great enjoyment at
least twice. Andy's lost argument and polemical confrontation with his former boss, and
college classmate Milkelburger, is worth twice the price of the book.
The
Wild Birds : Six Stories of the Port William Membership
Old Burley Coulter gets Wheller Catlet to settle matters in his Will and estate for both
Nathan and Danny Branch, Matt Feltner is old and following up on Nathan's work. These
stories are far better if you are already familiar with the community and Membership.
| Return to the
Recommended Authors Page Return to The Agrarian Foundation Home Page There
are 20 books listed on this page. |
Click here to enter the Amazon.com
Home Page |